I was driving my newly painted, second-hand Mitsubishi Galant along Ortigas Ave. on my way to a Spanish dinner with friends in the Morato area in Quezon City.

I had to stop somewhere before the vehicle conked out because of overheating. I had forgotten to check my engine oil and what’s worse — I drove it without putting water into the radiator.

My fault of omission was going to cost me another few thousands (que kuripot!) if the car over heated. I prayed that would not happen.

My prayers were answered as I sited a vacant parking space in front of the Madison Square Building. It was a place to “cool down” my engine and my nerves.That’s how I discovered Panciteria Lido on Ortigas Ave. and how I ended up not going to Morato for that lovely Spanish dinner.

Ayayay! Que Lastima!

In Panciteria Lido, I met Lalaine Coching, the restaurant’s manager who so kindly “told” me a little history about Panciteria Lido.

“It was the golden year of 1936. Calesas clonked their way down the tight esquinitas of Binondo, through the thick bright air and cacophony of busy sounds.

In the heart of China town, fiery-colored dragons peered through red banners, into the swell of humanity jostling their way down the streets – Chinese, Indios, mestizos, shoppers and merchants from everywhere, skillfully maneuvering through stacks of wooden crates, and vendors’ awkward little stalls cluttering the barely visible sidewalks.

T. Alonzo Street was like any other street in the booming Chinatown neighborhood. Noisy and packed, lined with busy shops of all sorts – pharmacies, hardware, stores, banks, in-between curious little buildings.

In the groundfloor of such a building, Mr. Lido, a Chinese chef, put up a modest eatery called Lido Panciteria.

Panciteria being the term formulated by the Pinoys for  Pancit (noodles) which evolved from the Hokkien phrase “pian sit” (something quickly cooked).

There, Mr. Lido served a tempting assortment of his classic Chinese favorites – noodles, dimsum, wanton, guisado, asado, among other masterfully cooked, with a subtle hint of that sweet — and – salty Filipino flavor.

Further expanding his menu of savory dishes, Mr. Lido experimented with a Chinese pork roast recipe, injecting it with the Filipino taste for sweetness.

Mr. Lido basted a succulent loin of pork in careful and precise proportions and measurements of Chinese ingredients. He roasted the marinated loin in a pugon, (an old-fashioned aromatic oven) in just in the right amount of heat to lock in the sweetly pungent aromatic flavor that Filipinos love. It was an ambrosial creation. Its every bite released exquisite flavors, through its white meat underneath a layer of dark, luscious, delicately sweet sauce. 

Slowly, as the smoke from the pugon  rose from the fresh roast, the news spread – special pugonroasted asado, only from the newest panciteria in town !

And they came, rich Filipino families from their  villas, Chinese families of Binondo, noisy students from Taft Avenue, looking for a quick meal, workers in Chinatown; merchants, couples and lovers, friends – the usual Binondo bunch- to the new Lido panciteria, craving for Pugonroasted Asado. 

People feasted on  panciteria food, otherwise known as the Best Chinese food.

Everyday  was a happy riot in the panciteria.  Waiters shouted food orders to the kitchen above the raucous buzz of lively voices.  There was  always a perky bunch of customers, seated on cafeteria chairs, under  enormous ceiling fans, devouring a sumptuous panciteria feast.

And so it was, as the years trudged along, as new generations, new swarms of people flooded the “shrinking” streets of Chinatown where new businesses bloomed  and panciterias opened for business and eventually closed.

Lido Panceteria was always there, that modest little eatery, maker of the best pugon-roast asado, the panciteria on T. Alonzo Street.

For the first time in 1994, the new Lido Restaurant (Lido Panciteria) served its Lido brewed coffee… and coffee drinking in Binondo was never the same.

The flavorful siphon–brewed coffee, with its uniquely arousing qualities never failed to draw coffee lovers in —  whether it be morning, noon, or night.

Chinese merchants, Tsinoys (Filipino-Chinese mestizos), Pinoys, a jumble of faces – would be spotted in the eatery, in animated chatter over cups of the aromatic brew.

The extraordinary new coffee had turned Lido Panciteria into Chinatown’s first and favorite coffeehouse.”

In the Panciteria Lido Ortigas Ave. branch, where I gladly found myself in, one can partake of its soup for the day for only R55.

Available too (if one pleases) are different kinds of soup like diced wintermelon with ham, minced beef, sate fish sotanghon hototay, wanton, and nido quail egg soup.

That evening, I had steamed fish fillet (Lapu-Lapu) in soy sauce topped with coriander, slices of spring onions, and finely sliced young ginger. It was so “clean tasting.”

And of course, how could I miss the pugon-roasted asado cooked with Mr. Lido’s original recipe.

 Ummmmm. No wonder people came in hoards about six decades ago to relish that asado.

I was alone and could not take any more than just these two dishes and the soup. My unexpected meal had made me “full to the brim.”

Outside, the traffic had subsided and the rain had stopped pouring. I was ready, willing and able to meet up with my friends… who, by that time, had left for home.

Still, I felt so happy. All that I remember is that my prayers were answered.